(Dawnguard) Lost to the Ages quest wont work

[Bruno Augusto]

I'm playing again and because this quest was one of my missing Steam's achievement I prefered to do it as soon as possible and after so many relates about Riften-Windhelm cells in some part of their roads I decided to visit these cities after get my crown.

It worked like a charm, however I noticed a few weird behaviors while playing Arkngthamz at final room (Tonal Lock with a locked Centurion), even shooting all the Tonal Locks in the correct order, the Centurion "awoke" but stayed locked inside the gate.

Despite this not sounds a big deal, Katria's Ghost went straight and quickly to where the first Crystal Shard was as soon the gate opens BUT because the Centurion is "alive", she thought that was a fight and because of gate door, she couldn not shoot him and, obviously, he wouldn't die. And I stayed in this loop without being able to complete because I couldn't talk to Katria (first task after solve the Tonal Lock).

I managed to workaround this by waiting Katria's Ghost enter the treasure room and going without rush towards to her. Maybe because I wasn't at her side, the fight wasn't triggered and I could speak to her.

However... After Katria's Ghost vanish the fight started and my follower tried to fight in vain. Again, I have workarounded this by going all the way back and "calling" my follower with console commands.

Awn! There are one more problem in the same ruins o.O

Because it has been awhile since my last gameplay, I didn't remember the correct order of Tonal Lock and in the first try I released the Centurion. Normal if wasn't the fact he was a lich. I mean, me, my follower and Katria were hiting, hiting, hiting and nothing was happening. Again, again, I tried another workround using kill console command and nothing happened, maybe because I'd picked a wrong refid (although I triple checked).

Then I used killall and as expected, everyone died except me. The problem is nor Katria or my follower were able to stand up again, being under their knees forever and this was another reason I had to try the quest again, as if Katria's Ghost don't make her way to the treasure room, we cannot continue the quest.

[Darkjedi]

Hmm I am having a problem with this quest, but everything I can find on it is that people are having problems starting the quest all together.  I didn't have any problems starting the quest.  I have two of the shards.  But no map marker has come up telling me where to go or anything for the third piece.    Should I make a whole new post for this or doing it on here fine?

[Leonardo]

Should I make a whole new post for this or doing it on here fine?

I don't think that's necessary unless you have more issue stuff to report, so no your post is in the right place.

 

Also...

 

Welcome to AFK Mods! 

 

[Darkjedi]

Ok, cool thank you.  Some forums sites are VERY adamant about that, so wasn't sure lol.  And thank you for the welcome.

[Darkjedi]

So with the help of Google and walkthroughs and all that, I was able to find Deep Folk Crossing.  When I finally got there, the map marker suddenly appeared, on the compass at top, when I was there and on the map.   And Katria appeared saying that I had beat her to it this time. So it is kind of working and kind of not.  The map marker for Raldbthar is not showing up, so I am currently in the forest trying to find it, heading into the mountains.

[qwerty12345]

I have the same problem. I read the book, and went to the ruin. Quest didn't start. Console commands don't work.

 

The new "Dawnguard unofficial patch" didn't work either, but I used the same file after I read the book, so I might have to start a new game. I would rather just console command the aetherial crown.

 

But if there is a fix, I would prefer that over any of this.

 

On a side note, I have never been to Mzulft, but I have been to deep folk crossing. But I am not sure if I went to deep folk crossing before or after I started dawnguard quest.

 

Also, I am not far into the dawnguard questline, I merely started it(talked to the guy and left it there). I will try to progress further in the dawnguard quest to see if it will work.

 

I downloaded the dawnguard unofficial patch, but it didn't fix the quest. Do I have to start a new game or does the patch fix the old save file with the bug?

[BlackPete]

Lost to the Ages (DLC1LD) would not start if the player had visted Mzulft or Deepfolk Crossing prior to reading The Aetherium Wars. Two corpses placed at these locations were added, but they were not considered optional for the quest aliases, and once they "rotted" this blocked the quest from starting. (Bug #14130)

The UDGP fixed the issue with the book and the quest not starting back in the 2.0.1 release. From my personal testing on a save with the problem, the fix does work on an existing game, so I'm not sure why this would be happening.

[qwerty12345]

The UDGP fixed the issue with the book and the quest not starting back in the 2.0.1 release. From my personal testing on a save with the problem, the fix does work on an existing game, so I'm not sure why this would be happening.

 

Could it be because my skyrim.esm and update.esm load order files are missing in load order selection? Because that's the only problem I can see.

[BlackPete]

I'm assuming you're talking about in the game launcher window. If so, that's normal.

[qwerty12345]

I'm assuming you're talking about in the game launcher window. If so, that's normal.

 

How did you manage to start the quest on a bugged save file?

 

By the way, when I verify cache file, it says 1 file is missing and it will be downloaded, but it never downloads. It's an old thing that a lot of people have trouble with, so I don't think this is the problem.

 

Maybe there are other issues in the game that causes the bug, so the Deepfolk crossing and Mzulft fix doesn't apply to me?

[BlackPete]

How did you manage to start the quest on a bugged save file?

 

By the way, when I verify cache file, it says 1 file is missing and it will be downloaded, but it never downloads. It's an old thing that a lot of people have trouble with, so I don't think this is the problem.

The problem that I had was that the miscellaneous journal entry to "Investigate the ruins of Arkngthamz" was not appearing in my journal after reading the book "The Aetherium Wars".

 

I'm gathering (from reading your posts again) that you "may" be having a different problem than what I was originally thinking of (and that I experienced). It could be that the specific bug that you have encountered either hasn't been addressed by the UDGP or that it was a non-retroactive fix (i.e. doesn't work on an existing game that has the bug). I don't know whether this is an option at this point, but you may want to try reloading a save prior to ever starting this quest and try again. If that isn't an option, it may be necessary to start a new game.

 

Additionally, if you are able to upload a game save, Arthmoor or one of the other people working on the patches "may" be to able determine the reason for the bugged quest and (if necessary) add a fix to a later version of the patch. There's no guarantee on that though.

[qwerty12345]

The problem that I had was that the miscellaneous journal entry to "Investigate the ruins of Arkngthamz" was not appearing in my journal after reading the book "The Aetherium Wars".

 

I'm gathering (from reading your posts again) that you "may" be having a different problem than what I was originally thinking of (and that I experienced). It could be that the specific bug that you have encountered either hasn't been addressed by the UDGP or that it was a non-retroactive fix (i.e. doesn't work on an existing game that has the bug). I don't know whether this is an option at this point, but you may want to try reloading a save prior to ever starting this quest and try again. If that isn't an option, it may be necessary to start a new game.

 

Additionally, if you are able to upload a game save, Arthmoor or one of the other people working on the patches "may" be to able determine the reason for the bugged quest and (if necessary) add a fix to a later version of the patch. There's no guarantee on that though.

 

 

I SOLVED IT YES!!!

 

This is the bug:

 

You can actually obtain a glowing shard from the shard locations before you start Lost to the Ages. I discovered I had one shard in my cupboard at Breezehome, so I dropped it and talked to Katria again. The quest starts! BAM. There is the bug, now you guys can patch this.

 

The credit goes to this discussion:

 

http://elderscrolls.wikia.com/wiki/Thread:261551

[Arthmoor]

Actually, no, that's not a scenario that can be patched. The game doesn't deal well with stuff like that being moved around. If you were able to get it to fire after picking it back up after the quest was started, then that's going to be your solution. Aliases are very picky things.